Hospitals, graveyards and other sites deemed to be of importance are to be exempted from expropriation and demolishing in the development plans for the Al-Ruwais district, the Al-Ruwais International Real Estate Development Company has said. Walid Abdul Aal, Director General of the company charged with carrying out the plans for the district, said that some 3,000 properties were set to be demolished to pave the way for the accommodation of 34,000 residents upon the completion of the plans. Expatriates currently make up 70 percent of the district's inhabitants and Saudis 30 percent, according to Abdul Aal, with 10 percent of residents owning their properties and 90 percent renting. Residents of Al-Ruwais District who do not have property deeds for their homes, meanwhile, are to have their ownership made official through as yet undisclosed procedures. Jeddah Development and Urban Recreation Company Vice President Walid Al-Tunisi said ownership would be based on land surveyor reports and regulations to be set with input from courts and the notary public. Details of the move will be made known at a later date, but Al-Tunisi, speaking at a press conference Saturday for the launch of the Al-Ruwais District Development Project, noted that the process of property registration was part of the city's development plan and had already got under way. Al-Tunisi said that four locations were under study for the relocation of residents forced to leave the Al-Ruwais and Khozam districts, where residential units will be built for people whose compensation package is not sufficient for the purchase of new homes. Demographic and topographic studies of the development zone have been completed and the property survey is scheduled to be completed in three months. Al-Tunisi added that Makkah laws governing unplanned district development gave owners of expropriated property the option of accepting project shares matching the value of their property, selling their property to the development company at that value, or buying property from the new, developed zone's housing.
